At the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, CEO Steve Ballmer announced that sales of Windows 7 licenses crossed the 400 million mark. In June last year, the figure stood at 150 million, and by October, it rose to 240 million. With sales of 400 million license in under two years, Windows 7 is the fastest-selling operating system in history. On a related note, Microsoft announced that 100 million copies of Office 2010 were sold since its launch.

The story got started with a post on Network World from security consultant Mohamed Hassan, who purchased a Samsung laptop in February and discovered what appeared to be keylogging software on the device.

Have no fear, Underdog (Mohamed Hassan) is here. I believe, he should had consulted a security consultant, before posting the info, or, at least, do some real discovery.:shadedshu
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Back on topic:

There was no keylogger in Samsung laptops. It was a dumbass who was not even able to understand what the heck "false positive" means. (And I am sure that dumbass has set his AV's heuristic scan to the top)

The so called keylogger was the software to track Fn keys to adjust brightness, sound, wireless on/off etc.

I really don't get why people believe such things without questioning.

Edit: OMG and this guy is a security consultant.

Now I understand it better why our information are kept by those uber clever security consultants. Sony? Anyone?

Almost every laptop in the market comes with a "FreeDOS" option. It's just that you never asked.

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A cruze over to Dell and HP's websites show no such option, nor does a single laptop at Best Buy. I've called both Dell and HP requesting laptops with no OSes so I could use Linux and both replied with either "that isn't an option" or " we can do that but the cost won't change". Which means it is almost impossible to get it without an OS, or a no brainer to just buy it with the OS and just resell the OS(which is legal as long as you don't accept the EULA when you first power on the machine).

That's because you are forced to buy a license with 99% of the laptops.

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And desktops. The fact is though, people actually like Windows 7. They would probably still pick XP over 7 if given the option, simply because people hate change and Windows XP was comfortable, but they really shouldn't be given the option anymore.

When the end user declines the EULA, the OS is no long bound to the hardware it is installed on and can be installed on different hardware. It is only once the EULA is accepted that the OS is bound to the hardware. They do usually come pre-activated from the factory. However, the end user has the option to decline the EULA and it is left up to the OEM(HP/Dell/etc) to deside how to deal with this. They used to give refunds for the OS. However, now they just say you are stuck with it, which means you can resell it. This reason is one of the reasons you can activate an OEM copy of Windows multiple times on 2-3 different hardware configurations. The leeway was built in to handle situations like this.

In developing countries you can choose to have FreeDOS or a form of Linux (Linpus) pre-installed instead of Windows, they get more sales this way.
In the US or Western EU countries, that option doesn't exist because they can shove Windows down your throats and the extra 100 euro or $ it costs, wouldn't dent your wallets so much.

My laptop came with Linpus installed (Romania) and most of the under 1000 euro laptops don't have Windows on them. I presume this is the case with a lot of other developing countries.

I have some experience dealing with this issue. Lenovo is quite friendly towards the Free-DOS option, and actually deducts a fair amount off the machine (windows license). Dell was in the past looking like they were going to support Ubuntu pretty well (especially on business machines), but they've pretty much reduced non-Windows options to maybe 1 or 2 laptops at this point. When Asus was starting with the netbooks, they were quite friendly to Linux (only because Vista was unfriendly to netbooks, lol).

However, HP is the real stickler, and they are completely against anything non-Windows for regular consumers. They even go out of their way to override the EULA for Windows, saying if you do not agree to it, that you should return your laptop back to them for a refund. I just formatted and put Linux on my DM1z, instead.

When Asus was starting with the netbooks, they were quite friendly to Linux (only because Vista was unfriendly to netbooks, lol).

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The only reason ASUS was using linux was because they could install it for free, the the point of a netbook was to be as cheap as possible and allow people to use the net. Linux was great for that. Vista had nothing to do with it, and actually ran rather well on netbooks. Once microsoft started giving away Windows Xp home and the Win7 Starter for free to OEMs to pit on netbooks, Linux support became useless.

The only reason ASUS was using linux was because they could install it for free, the the point of a netbook was to be as cheap as possible and allow people to use the net. Linux was great for that. Vista had nothing to do with it, and actually ran rather well on netbooks. Once microsoft started giving away Windows Xp home and the Win7 Starter for free to OEMs to pit on netbooks, Linux support became useless.

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I am waiting for microsoft to die a horrific death, may they migrate to phones and leave the desktop world alone.

I am waiting for microsoft to die a horrific death, may they migrate to phones and leave the desktop world alone.

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So that Apple can charge us $1000 for their bloody OS? I don't think so! I hate Microsoft as much as the fiercest Linux fan boy, but lay off the kool-aid, man. M$ has done a pretty good job with 7, let's hope 8 will continue this trend.